Confession

Frankie blinked, listening to her elder friend recount memories beside the shoe section. She hadn’t found anything she liked- far too used to flip-flops at this point. Anything more looked like a hassle.

“So… you really became friends after that?”

“Don’t believe me? Don’t forget, this guy was probably super lonely. No wonder why he stooped to hanging with a lowlife like me.” They put back a pair of trainers. They didn’t have the money.

“How’d he go from… a kid like that, to… y’know, how he is now?”

“I dunno. I wasn’t there for that part.”

“You stopped talking?”

Sadness almost imperceptibly glimmered in Tala’s cold green eyes. They hadn’t even remembered until now, pushing the memory deep, deep down.

“One… conversation. One we had didn’t go so well.”

“What… what happened?” It felt weird to ask, but Frankie had already sat herself down on the nearest bench. She couldn’t help but wonder how anyone could change that much.

Tala stared off into the distant aisles.

“He was just talking to me like always… but I had other things in mind for where I wanted the chat to go.”

They froze up, like they didn’t feel capable of explaining further.

“What did you do…?”

“That’s the thing. I couldn’t do it. No matter how hard I pushed myself, I… couldn’t let it out what I wanted to tell him, and he was so confused. It made me angry.”

“Yeah…?”

“I just felt… it was just embarrassing.” Tara clenched their teeth, accidentally activating their trickery as they pushed back the blue feelings rummaging through their insides, realizing just how childish they’d been then, and how childish they were being now for not having the guts to say it. 

“He was so dense. I decided I never wanted to speak to him ever again.”

“But you… seemed happy when he first showed up at our booth, right?” Frankie asked.

Tala shivered like a cold breeze had washed over their entire body.

“…That I did. That I was, Frankie.”